Page 68 - NS-2 Textbook

THE RISE TO WORLD POWER STATUS 61

war and Puerto Rico a close second, the bulk of the u.s. chance at sea, so he planned to fight at anchor under the
fleet was concentrated in the Atlantic. In mid-March the shore batteries at Cavite, a naval station south of Manila.
new battleship Oregoll, just being completed in San Fran- Shortly after lnidnight on 1 May 1898 Dewey's
cisco, ,vas ordered to leave immediately and begin an squadron slipped into the entrance of Manila Bay past
amazing 15,000-mile trip in sixty-six days to join the u.s. the fortified island of Corregidor and made for Manila,
Atlantic Fleet by way of Cape Horn. 22 miles across the bay. As dawn broke, the enemy
The Spanish governnlent alerted Admh'al Cenrera, squadron was sighted off Cavite. Dewey in Olympia at
commander of the home fleet, to prepare to sail to the the head of his column of ships immediately turned
Caribbean to defend the colonies, destroy the Ameri- south and proceeded to within 5,000 yards of the enemy,
can fleet and naval base at Key West, and blockade the at which point he gave the famous command to his
American coast. Though Cervera pointed out that his ship's comnlilllding officel~ "You may fire when you are
fleet was not ready to take on the superior U.s. Atlantic ready, Gridley."
Fleet, he reluctantly steamed from Cadiz, Spain, to the With that the American ships began a series of oval-
Cape Verde Islands on 9 April with four cruisers and two shaped firing runs past the Spanish ships, each ship fir-
destroyers. ing both at the enemy ships and the shore batteries be-
News of his sailing immediately caused a ·war scare hind them. After two hours, Dewey retired for a time.
all along the U.S. East Coast. To calm the frightened pop- When the smoke cleared, Dewey saw that the Spanish
ulace, the Navy hauled out some of its obsolete Civil War fleet 'vas in shmnbles. All nlajor vessels had been sunk or
monitors and stationed them in various port cities for abandoned, and only a few gunboats remained. At 1100
harbor defense, and the Army placed several old Civil
War cannons along the coast. Also, a so-called Flying
Squadron with a battleship and three cruisers lmder
Commodore Winfield Schley was detached from the A t-
lantic Fleet and based at Norfolk for protection of the At-
lantic seaboard, should Cen'era's ships proceed there.
The main part of the fleet, consisting of three battleships
and three cruisers under Rear Adnllial Sampson, ,vas or-
dered to Key West, ready for offensive operations against
Cuba and Puerto Rico.
On 22 April the Navy Department directed Admiral
Sampson to set up a blockade of Cuba. On 25 April Con-
gress declared that a state of war had existed with Spain
as of 21 April. On the hventy-ninth, Admiral Cervera's
fleet left the Cape Verdes and steamed to the defense of
Puerto Rico. Cen'era knew the poor state of his ships and
the lack of training of his crews; he firmly believed he
was sailing into destruction. Other European countries,
however, believed that Spain would defeat the United
States in a long war. Alfred Thayer Mahan predicted that
America would win in "about three months."

OPERATIONS IN THE PACIFIC
News of the formal declaration of war reached Com-
modore Dewey by cable in Hong Kong the day after the
cruiser Baltimore arrived ,,,ith her load of anlmunition.
He ,vas given hventy-four hOlITS to get tmder ·way for the
Philippine Islands and commence operations against the
Spanish fleet at Manila. Besides the flagship Olympia,
Dewey had tlu-ee other cruisers, including the Baltimore,
rno gunboats, and a cutter. The Spanish squadron lmder
the command of Admiral Patricio Montojo consisted of
his flagship, the cruiser Reilla Cllristilla, and six other
Chart showing Manila Bay and the maneuvers of Dewey's ships in
light cruisers and three gtmboats, all of which were in their victory over Admiral Montojo's fleet, lying under the protec-
poor condition. Montojo realized he would have no tive shore batteries at Sangley Point and Cavite Naval Base.